It is this joint appeal to our most juvenile sense of fun and our love of web lists which has made BuzzFeed an online phenomenon since it launched in New York seven years ago. It’s a simple formula, but it is one that has seen BuzzFeed.com pull in 40m monthly unique users worldwide.

BuzzFeed’s biggest market outside the US is in Britain and to reflect that, an editorial team has just been established in London.

‘A lot of people now know BuzzFeed as the incarnation that we’re in now in the States but it took us a while to get there. We’re kind of going back to our roots in coming to the UK. We’re looking at this as a fun experiment.’

Mr Lamb describes the site’s users as ‘miniature publishers’ who like what they see and share it with their friends via Facebook and Twitter. Those users are mainly in their late teens or early 20s.

‘If you come to BuzzFeed, there’s a real mix of news stories that are about things that are happening in the world right now right next to fun lists of corgis being adorable,’ he said.

One of the keys to BuzzFeed’s success has been its business model, which sees it publish brand-sponsored posts. Although there is no sales team yet in London, BuzzFeed UK could eventually introduce a different kind of online advertising to readers here. But will they buy it?

Mr Lamb says it’s time for news and media outlets to think of new ways of making money online.

‘It’s pretty clear the banner ad is not that format,’ he said. ‘They don’t perform well, I don’t think they’re great for brands, I definitely don’t think they’re great for users.

‘I would be surprised if we don’t start seeing more people doing something along the lines of what BuzzFeed is doing.’

BuzzFeed UK editor Luke Lewis said the posts originating here will often have a ‘QI-ish’ element to them.

‘A lot of it is quarrying those really distinctive, unexplored corners of British culture and having fun with them,’ he added.

‘The main thing we want to do with BuzzFeed UK is make people laugh. It’s got to be entertaining, it’s got to be funny and that’s what we’re aiming for.’

He said the posts which go ‘super-viral’ are the ones which are funny but also emotional.

‘If you put a lot of wonderful photos or funny captions all the way down a page, there is a certain magic to that people can’t resist sharing.’

It may be magical, but it has led to accusations that BuzzFeed does little more than grab the best of what’s already out there on the web and then panda – sorry, pander – to the lowest common denominator.

Mr Lamb makes no apologies for trying to appeal to a broad audience, but insists there is a wide range of content on BuzzFeed.

‘Some of the people on our team focus on making the most fun, clickiest viral content imaginable. But then we also have reporters on Capitol Hill, people who followed Obama and Mitt Romney around for the election. We do 10,000-word investigative pieces as well. That criticism focuses too closely on just one of the things the site’s actually doing.’

Political reporting isn’t on the immediate agenda here in Britain for BuzzFeed – it will start by sticking to what it does best: witty content which just has to be shared.

When it comes to irresistible content for the masses, however, there is some way to go before tackling the large online elephant in the room.

‘Mail Online is the place where pretty much all of Britain spends its lunchtime, including me – I think it’s fantastic. It depends on whether BuzzFeed can capture that audience who get bored at lunchtime and want to share things with their friends on Twitter and Facebook.’

Mr Halliday believes its ‘fascinating mix of really daft lists and a little bit of serious journalism’ has made BuzzFeed a winner.

He is also a fan of the site’s new ‘efficiency machine’, a mixing board which lets users personalise BuzzFeed.com according to what they like.

‘I think that’s the future of news websites – it’s brilliant. You can go on there and you can tailor the site to your taste.’

Like those behind BuzzFeed, Mr Halliday thinks the intrusive banner advert on websites has had its day.

‘All the signs of the past five years have been that internet readers just ignore this sort of banner advertising and as we all move to smartphones and reading stuff on the go, then banners are even less effective because people just scroll straight past them.

‘If anyone’s going to push the boundaries of editorial and pioneer new forms of making money online, then it will be BuzzFeed. Everyone will be watching BuzzFeed, including national newspaper websites, to see how much of a success they make of it.’

Advertisers, however, are attracted by popular content, something BuzzFeed has developed a unique knack at providing.

‘There’s so much serious, boring news out there and everyone’s depressed, everyone’s got no money, everyone’s moaning about something, there’s so much crap stuff going on in the world, so it’s funny to just see the best 15 David Hasselhoff lookalikes,’ said Mr Halliday.

‘What better way to spend your lunch than watching music videos infiltrated by goats? No one would go on BuzzFeed and find something they didn’t find funny. It’s just a barmy, barmy website.’